David Alland’s group at Rutgers Medical School identified the optimal tongue swab processing method for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance using Cepheid’s Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay, as an alternative to sputum samples. They found that a 2:1 dilution of Xpert Sample Reagent with Tris-EDTA-Tween buffer improves the sensitivity of the Xpert Ultra assay for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance in tongue swab samples compared to the commonly used heat-based protocol, and this method may enable improved sensitivity with reduced risk of over-pressurization errors, though further clinical validation is needed.
Chilambi GS, Reiss R, Daivaa N, Banada P, De Vos M, Penn-Nicholson A, Alland D. Optimal processing of tongue swab samples for Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection by the Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay. Microbiol Spectr. 2025 Mar 4;13(3):e0240324. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02403-24. Epub 2025 Jan 28. PMID: 39873526; PMCID: PMC11878016. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/spectrum.02403-24
Comentários